Cheetos®

Cheetos® symbolize the creativity of humans, as well as the great divide between man and nature. Cheetos® are delicious, coveted by S.T. and Dennis, and yet they are an unhealthy junk food. Corn is the primary ingredient in Cheetos®, but the bright orange snack does not resemble anything agricultural. S.T. calls them “delectable, radioactive poofs,” a description that resonates later in the novel when a young fairy pitta flees from a failing nuclear power plant (27). At the funeral for Dennis, S.T. arranges Cheetos® into a D to honor the bloodhound.

Feathers

Feathers symbolize the freedom to fly, which S.T. learns to cherish following his catastrophic wing injury. When Migisi the eagle carries S.T. on her back for the first time, the crow states, “To be feathered…is to eschew captivity, to taste the pulpy fruit of freedom” (200). Feathers, of course, belong...